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Jan 1, 2023 · Highlands are an ancient geological unit on the moon, distributed largely on the boundaries of the maria. The elevation of lunar highlands is 2–3 km higher than maria, and the areas tend to be larger than maria.
- zhouc0316@126.com
What is the definition of Highlands? Highlands are the bright areas that surround the maria. There regions are less dense and rugged - heavily pitted with craters that often overlap.
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Are Highlands a geological unit on the Moon?
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How did the Highlands form?
Most of the crust of the Moon (83%) consists of silicate rocks called anorthosites; these regions are known as the lunar highlands. They are made of relatively low-density rock that solidified on the cooling Moon like slag floating on the top of a smelter.
- Abstract
- Lunar Geology
- Apollo Perspectives
- The Lunar Magma Ocean
- New Perspectives: Lunar Meteorites
- Serial Magmatism
- Asymmetrical Crustal Flotation
- Impact Modification of The Crust
- Future Perspectives
Many currently accepted models for planetary formation and differentiation were born out of the pioneering Apollo and Luna missions of the 1960s and 70s. Rocks from these missions, as shown in figure 1, have yielded some of the oldest dated material in the solar system, with ages typically ranging from ∼4.5 to ∼3 Ga (Snyder et al. 2000, Borg et al....
The Moon that we see is dominated by two units with different albedo: the white unit – highlands – which has been scarred by ancient impact events, and the dark unit – lava “mare” flows – that often infills these huge circular basins (figure 2). However, remote-sensing observations of the lunar surface have significantly advanced our understanding ...
The Apollo 11 mission touched down in the Sea of Tranquillity lava field, which erupted in a series of volcanic episodes ∼3.8 Ga. Perhaps the most significant scientific discovery of the Apollo-era missions was the discovery of small fragments of plagioclase-feldspar rich rocks classified as anorthosites (i.e. the plagioclase was predominantly anor...
The global LMO hypothesis argues that the early Moon was a well-mixed molten body, formed at about 4.5 Ga (Wood et al. 1970). During the solidification of this magma “ocean”, mafic minerals such as magnesium-rich olivines and pyroxenes, which are typically the first minerals to crystallize in magmatic systems, sank to form the lunar mantle. Then, a...
Relatively little is known about the plagioclase-rich lithologies of the lunar farside (i.e. in the FHT) and polar areas, in comparison to the nearside. Remote characterization of anorthosite mineralogies has traditionally been limited, mainly because it is difficult to identify plagioclase in orbital near-infrared reflectance data (Ohtake et al. 2...
In general, the LMO model has remained the archetype for planetary differentiation processes. However, as analytical methods have improved, reanalysis of Apollo anorthosites together with new observations from lunar meteorites have challenged the model of a single flotation event. Some radical new models have been proposed to account for the format...
Despite the large range of chemistries within individual lunar meteorites (figure 5a), remote-sensing data indicate that average lunar farside anorthosites are richer in magnesium than nearside FANs (figure 3c) (Ohtake et al. 2009, Crites & Lucey 2015). A popular model to account for the dichotomy between the nearside FANs and the farside MANs has ...
Perhaps one of the largest unknown factors regarding lunar farside lithologies is the role of large impacts, forming craters >300 km across, in modifying the primary crust. Some workers have suggested that the thicker farside FHT reflects the asymmetric deposition of ejecta after the impact that formed the SPA basin (Arai et al. 2008). If such an i...
Lunar crustal formation models have come a long way since the successful return of samples by Apollo 11. After the Apollo and Luna missions, lunar meteorites and remote-sensing missions have been instrumental in developing our understanding of the ancient lunar crust. However, reinvestigations of the Apollo collection continues to shed important ne...
- John F Pernet-Fisher, Katherine H Joy
- 2016
Apr 11, 2022 · The old, heavily cratered lunar highlands make up 83% of the Moon’s surface. Unlike the mountains on Earth, the Moon’s highlands do not have any sharp folds in their ranges. The highlands have low, rounded profiles that resemble the oldest, most eroded mountains on Earth (Figure).
Nov 20, 2015 · Highlands were described as “considerable extents of surface, usually elevated, that are covered by hills and short ridges, with occasionally a mountain peak or crater, whilst the intermediate space is occupied by a complex system of valleys and cross valleys of every form and size.” (Neison 1876).
1. Highlands: mountainous terrain, scarred by craters, older surfaces. 2. Lowlands: 3km lower than highlands; smooth surfaces (dark and called Maria). Would have been basins flooded by lava flows during the formation of the moon.
